Growing Tatsoi: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · July 25, 2026
Tatsoi is a close relative of bok choy, grown for its low, spoon-shaped rosette of dark green leaves. It’s one of the more cold-hardy Asian greens, making it a reliable choice for a late-fall harvest.
Sowing and harvest windows
Direct-sow seed 1/4 inch deep from early spring into midsummer. Harvest as baby leaf around 25 days, or let it fill out to a full rosette by around 45 days. It handles cold especially well, and is a good candidate for overwintering under a low tunnel or in an unheated high tunnel.
Bolting and pests
Like its brassica relatives, tatsoi bolts in summer heat, so spring and fall are its strongest seasons. A slower-to-bolt type like Yukina Savoy stretches that window at both ends without changing how you grow it. Flea beetles are the main early-season pest. Row cover from seeding onward heads off most damage.
A low filler that stretches the salad season
Tatsoi’s low, ground-hugging rosette makes it a good filler between taller crops in a mixed bed, and its cold tolerance means it can extend a salad-garden harvest well past the point when more tender greens have quit for the season.
Sources: Tatsoi (Organic), Johnny’s Selected Seeds; Yukina Savoy Asian Greens, High Mowing Organic Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Tatsoi · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 4-8 in
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. It doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
When to plant tatsoi, by zone
Every zone tatsoi grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2a & 2b | Not usually | Apr 29–May 6 | Jun 13–Jun 20 |
| 3a & 3b | Not usually | May 9–May 16 | Jun 23–Jun 30 |
| 4a & 4b | Not usually | Apr 24–May 1 | Jun 8–Jun 15 |
| 5a & 5b | Not usually | Apr 19–Apr 26 | Jun 3–Jun 10 |
| 6a & 6b | Not usually | Apr 4–Apr 11 | May 19–May 26 |
| 7a & 7b | Not usually | Mar 20–Mar 27 | May 4–May 11 |
| 8a & 8b | Not usually | Mar 4–Mar 11 | Apr 18–Apr 25 |
| 9a & 9b | Not usually | Jan 25–Feb 1 | Mar 11–Mar 18 |
| 10a & 10b | Not usually | Jan 9–Jan 16 | Feb 23–Mar 2 |
| 11a & 11b | Not usually | Dec 11–Dec 18 | Jan 25–Feb 1 |
Harvest dates are about 45 days after the sow or plant-out date.
Zone 2 sows before zone 3 here, which looks wrong and is not. USDA zones rank winter cold, not season length, and zone 2 is mostly interior Alaska, where hard winters come with warm summers. More on what a zone measures.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Tatsoi plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 9 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 4-8 in.
Good companions for tatsoi
- Radish: Radish (including the daikon form) is a documented trap crop for flea beetles, which prefer its mustard oils over other brassicas and can be sacrificed or pulled once infested: the same research cited on the radish page.
Full companion guide, including what to keep away from tatsoi →
Varieties worth considering
- Yukina Savoy (Brassica rapa var. rosularis 'Yukina Savoy'): A bigger, savoy-leaved cousin of standard tatsoi that High Mowing Seeds describes as more succulent and slower to bolt. If summer heat keeps cutting your tatsoi's season short, this is the variety that buys you extra weeks on both ends. (source)
- Koji (F1): Johnny's own hybrid, dark green with cupped, savoyed leaves on long stems, bred for heat and cold tolerance across all-season production. A darker-leaved alternative to Yukina Savoy's lighter green, with the same extended-season goal. (source)
- Red Cloud (F1): A rich burgundy hybrid Johnny's says pairs with Koji for striking bunches of contrasting colors, ready as baby leaf in 28 days or full size at 45. The color option if the standard green rosette or Koji's dark green both feel plain. (source)
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy tatsoi seeds
True Leaf Market (each supplier's tatsoi seeds)
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing tatsoi" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Tatsoi: A cold-hardy Asian green that forms a low, dark-green rosette and shrugs off hard frost.
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